State Board Will Discuss Details Of Charter School Grant Program

State Board of Education members Steve Yager, Sarah O’Brien and Byron Ernest at the June meeting. (Photo Credit: Claire McInerny/StateImpact Indiana)

The State Board of Education will meet Wednesday for its regular business meeting, and the biggest agenda item will be the discussion around the new law that gives charter schools access to state funded grants and loans.

The Charter School Grant and Loan Program, which Governor Pence signed as part of the biennial budget, allows public charter schools access to state funds to pay for capital projects, technology and transportation costs they previously did not receive from the state.

The money is being allocated to charter schools because they do not have access to property taxes, which on average total around $3,000 per student for traditional public schools.

The grant program will give charter schools $500 per student for those purposes, but will only get the money if they meet the following criteria:

• Receive an A, B, or C grade on the state’s A-F accountability system.
• In their first or second year of operation.
• Serve mostly special education students.
• Located in an innovation network.
• Don’t qualify for the A-F system, and therefore don’t receive a letter grade.

In addition, a school receiving a D or F is still eligible as long as the nearest traditional public school is performing the same as or worse than the charter school.

Charter schools will receive the grants in two installments of $250 per student, with the first payment going out immediately based on projected enrollment and the second once the official count is taken.

There is also a loan program charter schools may apply for, using the same criteria. There is a one percent interest rate on the loans and no school may receive more than $5 million.

Marc Lotter, State Board of Education spokesperson, says the two options for charter school depend on their needs.

“In one case, the grant is an ongoing source of funding and so schools can expect to receive this money on an annual basis through the grant program for facilities, technology and things,” Lotter says. And the loan program is nothing new to the system as a whole, just to charter schools. “This is the exact kind of program that traditional public schools have long been able to utilize and this is just opening that up to public charter schools.”

The SBOE Wednesday will formally approve the first batch of money going to schools, as well as creating the official application for the loan program.

The SBOE meeting begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday.